In radio frequency (RF) devices such as portable two-way radios, it is often necessary to provide an electrical RF connection between the printed circuit (PC) board, or (PCB) that is located within a radio housing and a coaxial connector mounted on the radio housing. The interconnection is required to present the proper impedance between the circuit board and the coaxial connector.
One approach to this problem is to utilize coaxial cables such as miniature coaxial cables which are manually soldered to both the circuit board and the coaxial connector. This approach has several drawbacks. First of all, soldering a coaxial cable is inherently a manual operation that does not lend itself to automation and is consequently both time consuming and costly. Additionally, the connection is semi-permanent, that is, it requires unsoldering to disconnect the circuit board from the coaxial connector. This inhibits the removal and insertion of the circuit board from the housing.
One well known alternative approach involves the use of a PCB coaxial connector or socket to receive the connector. The ends of the coaxial cable are soldered to the coaxial connector while the PCB connector includes contact legs which are inserted into the printed circuit board to allow connection and removal of the circuit board from the housing. This approach still requires manual soldering of the socket. In addition, these PCB connectors are usually expensive and utilize PC board area. Even if the conventional PCB connectors are made small enough, they still require hand soldering, possess no mate locking feature, or are not surface-mountable. Thus, there is a need for a socket that provides the proper impedance for an RF connection and is surface-mountable directly onto the circuit board in an automatic assembly process.